First Peter - Lorin

Most likely this connection to Christ implied little if any understanding of who Christ actually was. In the
opponents’ minds, Christ represented a new religious movement that they were suspicious of and thus were
hostile to. The continual squabbling internally by the Jews about their religion created negative feelings about
anything religious connected to Jewish people. 46 Christianity was perceived as a Jewish religious movement
by Gentiles in that world, even though many non-Jews were coming into Christianity. Added to that was the
insistence on the existence of only one God in a world of polytheism affirming the existence of many gods.
In 5:9, Peter alludes to believers elsewhere in that world experiencing τὰ αὐτὰ τῶν παθημάτων (the same
sufferings) as those of his readers. In this same passage, vv. 6-11, these sufferings are the product of the activity
of the διάβολος, Devil, working through humans who oppose believers and their God. Their experience
of suffering is compared to τῇ ἐν ὑμῖν πυρώσει πρὸς πειρασμὸν (the fiery ordeal among you for testing) in 4:12.
See also 1:7 where the testing of faith in suffering is compared to the refining of gold by fire. For the believers,
what they were experiencing was like walking through a hot furnace with fire blasting them.
The picture that emerges here dominantly is that the opposition being leveled at Peter’s initial readers
was primarily verbal in nature. This does imply the possibility of formal legal charges being made against
them through the Roman court systems in place throughout these provinces, but nothing explicitly states this.
More likely, the picture that Peter is painting here implies verbal abuse made by people living around them in
the towns and villages where believers were found. This could easily have taken place in the market places
and perhaps in the Jewish synagogues, as well as on the streets. Much of it was spoken face to face with
believers, but a lot of it was spoken behind their backs as gossip and rumor. First Peter 3:9 strongly implies
this: μὴ ἀποδιδόντες κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ ἢ λοιδορίαν ἀντὶ λοιδορίας, τοὐναντίον δὲ εὐλογοῦντες, “Do not repay
evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing.”
The picture painted by Peter is that the communities, where the believers were, did not accept the new
religious devotion of their neighbors. The dramatically different and changed lifestyle of the believers created
suspicion and distrust. When believers refused to continue participating in the immoral living of their neighbors,
suspicion turned into slander and misrepresentation of the new religion of these folks: βλασφημοῦντες
(slandering). At some point that could have spilled over into formal charges made against them, but the tone
of Peter’s description does not suggest that such had happened at the time of the writing of his letter to them.
Not even mob violence against Christians is hinted at by Peter.
2. Did Peter link physical persecution and suffering? It is not clear whether physical acts of violence
took place or not. A couple of the verbs used, κακόω and πάσχω, are certainly broad enough in their scope
46 Historically the fussing between the Hebraists and the Hellenists had sometimes led to physical combat between these two
groups. See γογγυσμὸς τῶν Ἑλληνιστῶν πρὸς τοὺς Ἑβραίους in Acts 6:1 where this tension spilled over into the early church in
Jerusalem. These conflicts existed where ever Jews lived throughout the Roman empire. Certainly in the province of Asia in western
Anatolia with its very large Jewish populations the surrounding communities would have been familar with these debates and
squabbles. And probably it was known well in the other provinces mentioned in 1:2.
Extensive literature on this issue exists:
Oscar Cullmann, “The Significance of the Qumran Texts for Research into the Beginnings of Christianity,” JBL 74 (1955)
213–26, reprinted in The Scrolls and the New Testament (ed. Krister Stendahl; New York: Harper, 1957) 18–32. He argues that
converted members of the Qumran community were among the Hellenists.
Nils Alstrup Dahl, Das Volk Gottes: Eine Untersuchung zum Kirchenbewusstsein des Urchristentums (Skrifter utgitt av det
Norse Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo, 2 hist.-filos. Klasse 1941:2; Oslo; Dybwad, 1941; reprinted Darmstadt; Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1963) 193–98.
Werner Georg Kümmel, “Das Urchristentum,” ThR n.s. 14 (1942) 91.
Werner Georg Kümmel, “Das Urchristentum: III: Die Geschichte der Urkirche,” ThR n.s. 17 (1948–49) 23–26.
Johannes Munck, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (Richmond: John Knox, 1959) 218–28. He has a completely different
conception.
C. F. D, Moule, “Once More, Who Were the Hellenists?” ExpTim 70 (1958–59) 100–102.
Albrecht Oepke, Das Neue Gottesvolk in Schrifttum, Schauspiel, bildender Kunst und Weltgestaltung (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann,
1950) 188–90. Simon, St Stephen
Ceslas Spicq, “L’Épître aux Hébreux, Apollos, Jean-Baptiste, les Hellénistes et Qumran,” RevQ 1 (1958–59) 365–90.
Hans Windisch, “Ἕλλην,” TDNT 2 (1964) 511–12.
[from Hans Conzelmann, Eldon Jay Epp and Christopher R. Matthews, Acts of the Apostles : A Commentary on the Acts of the
Apostles (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987).]
Bible Study: Page 301